Logbook · 3 places

What to see and do in Riudecanyes

What to see and do in Riudecanyes (Baix Camp, Tarragona): 3 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Riudecanyes

Castle-Monastery of Escornalbou 2.7 km

Towns near Riudecanyes

What to see in Botarell 2.5 km · 2 places
What to see in Vilanova d'Escornalbou 2.7 km · 4 places
What to see in Duesaigües 3.1 km · 2 places
What to see in Montbrió del Camp 3.7 km · 3 places
What to see in l'Argentera 4.4 km · 2 places
What to see in Riudecols 4.4 km · 2 places
What to see in Mont-roig del Camp 4.7 km · 3 places
What to see in Vinyols i els Arcs 6.8 km · 2 places

Spain › Catalonia › Tarragona › Baix Camp › Riudecanyes

What to see and do in Riudecanyes

Riudecanyes
Village
Riudecanyes is a town and municipality in the comarca of Baix Camp, on the southern slope of Puig Marí, linked to the castle-monastery of Escornalbou. It was formed from the charter of settlement that Ramon Berenguer IV gave to Cambrils in 1152, and by around 1162 it already had its own castle, of which no remains survive. From 1339 it was the seat of the barony of Escornalbou, whose governor held his tribunal there, a post held first by a canon and later by a lawyer. In 1442 the archbishop of Tarragona Domènec Ram established a flour mill, and by around 1849 the village had as many as six, powered by the water of the stream. It lived from the cultivation of vines, along with legumes, carobs, almonds and hazelnuts, with a reputation for producing good wheat and good wine.
Castle-Monastery of Escornalbou
Monument
The castle-monastery of Escornalbou, in Riudecanyes (Baix Camp), stands at an altitude of 650 metres. The site was donated in 1166 to restore the fortress and build a church and canonry; the Romanesque church, a single nave with a barrel vault, was consecrated in 1240. Later occupied by Franciscans and looted during the Peninsular War, it fell into ruin with the disentailment of 1835. Eduard Toda bought it around 1910 and completed its restoration in 1924, rebuilding buildings in red sandstone and turning the cloister into a lookout; in 1926 he handed the complex over to the bishopric of Tarragona. It retains the Romanesque church and the old chapter house. Since 1983 it has been jointly owned by the Generalitat and the Diputació de Tarragona, and it reopened to the public in 2023 after refurbishment.
Construction of the Riudecanyes reservoir
Historical milestone
With the project approved in 1903 and built between 1904 and 1919 by a community of irrigators, the reservoir made it possible to turn a good part of the plain into irrigated land. In 1930 a canal was added that brings water from the river Siurana from the Priorat.